They Both Die in the End
by ferrymancharon
Summary: Death Cast is a company that calls you on the day that you'll die, that way you can still have the chance to live your life to the fullest or even plan your own funeral. But would 24 hours be enough to actually start living? It might be actually true that misery loves company. Based on Adam Silvera's book of the same title
1. Chapter 1

12:05 AM

Arthur blinked once, then twice. "Bloody hell…" he muttered under his breath. The ominous

ringing tone that he hadn't expected to hear in the next fifty years or so was blaring loudly in the middle of the almost empty street. That is assuming that he would be at least 70, but it doesn't seem likely now. Frozen under the flickering street light, his phone screen flashed "Death Cast."

Death Cast was calling him and that could only mean one thing. He felt as if the oxygen was

sucked out of his lungs.

"H-hello?" he managed to choke out after receiving the call.

"Hello, this is Cressida from Death Cast. Is this Arthur Kirkland?" a woman with an indifferent voice spoke from the other line.

Arthur Kirkland isn't that much of an uncommon name. It could be possible that they made a mistake, but then again, Death Cast was never wrong. They can't tell you what time and how you would die, but so far, they were accurate.

There was a longsuffering silence between the two of them before the woman spoke again,

snapping Arthur out of his stupor. "Mr. Kirkland?" the woman was obviously annoyed. She

probably sees him as another person added to her workload. Arthur was just another one random name in the list of names that she was about to call tonight.

The Brit opened his mouth to give a sarcastic remark, or maybe even blatantly lie about his

identity, but somehow, he can't find the strength to. "Yes. This is him," the sandy blond

confirmed quietly.

"Mr. Kirkland, I regret to inform you that you that you will be meeting an untimely death within the next twenty-four hours."

Of course. This is why Death Cast called.

"There is nothing we can do to suspend…"

The woman sounded so apathetic and it's so goddamn annoying. They are talking about a life here. When he was transferred to the US because of his job, he thought that his life was over, not literally, though. He was just fucking 23 for bloody hell's sake! His chest coiled very tightly.

Why…

"We suggest that you inform your relatives and say your goodbyes, and try to live the day to the

fullest. We are very sorry to lose you, Arthur," she says in a very insincere voice.

Relatives? Heh. Hell, if he had one. His parents passed away ages ago and for the longest while, his brothers never gave a fuck about him. What makes him think that they will now?

He doesn't even have someone you can call as a friend. That French colleague that he drinks with from time to time is excluded.

"We suggest you log-in to…."

Arthur hang up. He doesn't need more of her insincerity. He hissed and almost smashed his phon in the ground, before he actually knew it he is actually crying. He was scared of dying, after all.

Live life to the fullest? He had no idea how to do that.


	2. Chapter 2

Alfred wasn't able to hear the ringing tone because he had his headphones on to the max volume.

He was busy talking to his teammate in that raid dungeon they were doing. He was doing the hardest dungeon in game with Kiku, his best partner in any online game. He is the hero and Kiku is like his right-hand man, and they are a formidable team that makes everyone in any game tremble in fear. Even so, they both had the shares of victory and defeat when they face each other.

His phone was vibrating though, and it has become increasingly annoying. He decided to ignore it until it died down, but only started ringing again after a few seconds.

"Ugh..." Alfred groaned.

"Alfred…. You should probably answer that," Kiku's voice was laced in worry.

"That could wait later," Alfred said dismissively as he shot one of the larger mobs down. Kiku meanwhile stopped moving in game and let his character die.

"What the fuck, Kiku?" Alfred hissed. "Get your shit together! We only got one shot at this!"

"Just please look at your phone!" his Japanese friend said exasperatedly. This was the first time he heard him like that. He always sounded calm for some reason.

He glanced on his phone that almost fell off the table. This can't be. Kiku probably heard it from the other side.

Death Cast's caller ID flashed through the screen. He slowly took off his headphones and reached for his cell.

Should he accept it? His champion in game is slowly being torn apart by the mob and for some reason, he felt the same way. It is as if his insides were being torn apart. He swallowed thickly, before picking up.

"Hello, this is John from Death Cast. Is this Alfred F. Jones?"

"Haha! Oh hey, John. Wassup?" even if he tried to make his voice cheery, it still visibly trembled.

The man on the other line sighed. "Sir, I'm pretty sure you know what I would say… within the next 24 hours you would…"

"Yeah…"

He knew already.

Not even the famous artist who received a call from Death Cast managed to escape his death even if he tried to hide in his condominium. He was assassinated from the opposite building by a sniper.

So, he knew that there is no point in staying in his room because he'd die either way.

"I'm terribly sorry, sir. You can access our website and find more people that share the same fate as you today. Maybe the two of you can spend the day in actually living."

He was always thought by his father to remain steadfast in no matter what the situation, but the thought of him actually dying young…

"Thank you…" he said before hanging up.

"Alfred…" he heard Kiku's faint voice even if he had his headphones off. It was probably that loud.

"I'm sorry," he heard his friend say, but that was not he wanted to hear


	3. Chapter 3

It took him a whole lot to pick himself up from the park bench that he decided to sit on to because his legs felt too weak to support his own weight.

It was Friday… Saturday rather, since it's more than 30 minutes past midnight. Normally, he would just be drinking his sorry ass at the pub and have his frog of a coworker drag him back to his flat. Luckily, Francis never tried anything silly with him despite all the romantic overtures he threw at Arthur. He kept saying that his heart only belonged to someone named Lisa.

Lisa and Francis were married when two years ago. Francis was 21 and she was 20. Unfortunately, Lisa died in an accident, and Francis was left with their son. Come to think of it, it was Matthew's birthday today.

As a godfather, he should at least give him something. At first, he didn't want to be Matthew's godfather, even after Francis' incessant begging, but when he first saw the child with a bright smile, he finally accepted. He was Matthew's only godfather. He was supposed to guide him too as he grow up, probably stop Francis from corrupting the kid's mind early on.

Arthur stopped on his track when he realized that he was at the front of his flat already. He fished the key from somewhere in his coat pocket and unlocked the door. The key stuck in the keyhole for a bit but after a few twists he managed to open it. This flat is really improper, but he doesn't have a choice. This is the only place near in his workplace that doesn't cost is whole paycheck.

He made sure to lock the door properly before plopping himself in the sofa. He didn't even bother to take off his coat anymore, nor opening the lights

Normally, he would be making himself some chamomile tea to calm himself down, but his stove is busted. There was a moment of almost pure silence. The dripping of his broken faucet, the ticking of the grandfather clock, and the sound of his own heart thumping against his chest were the only things he heard for God knows how long.

He had been thinking about what last gift he should give to Matthew. He had been thinking on how to say it to Francis without looking truly pathetic. Last thing he wanted is pity from that bloody frog.

He placed his arm over his eyes and sighed again. That is when he heard his phone vibrate in his pocket.

At least he didn't go on smashing it. It was quite expensive.

He was disappointed to see that it was only an email from Death Cast. Were they rubbing it to his face that he would die today?

He scoffed to himself.

It was actually a link to a site called Last Friend.

He opened it and saw a registration form of some sort, and apparently, it searches through a list of names of people that would die today as well. This has to be some joke. He wanted to laugh cynically.

But in the end, he signed up for it.


	4. Chapter 4

12:38

"Alfred…" his friend, Kiku, spoke from the other line.

"Oh…" he breathed shakily. He must have left him on there for good 3 to 4 minutes. "I'm sorry. I have to go."

They were both dead in game now and the monitor was flashing a countdown before the mission was completely to be called a failure. They could respawn easily if they wanted to because they both had a lot of resurrection stones, anyway, but they both decided not to. The countdown on the screen reached zero and the game was declared a game over. Grotesque letters that spelled out " D" flashed on the screen and normally, he would rage about it, but would still be careful not to wake up his dad

That would be the normal circumstances. However, the situation is hardly normal. Just a few minutes ago, he was called by Death Cast and told him that he was about to die, and his dad was admitted in the hospital a few weeks ago. He hasn't woken up from his deep slumber.

Alfred logged out of the game and disconnected from the voice chat before Kiku could say "sorry" again.

A notification then popped up on his computer screen. It was their group chat.

 _ **Awesomeme: HEY YOU BITCHES I FINALLY GOT THE GLORYBRINGER!11! AN AWESOME SWORD FOR AN AWESOME ME WOOOOHOOO!1**_ _ **everyone.**_

 _ **Ellie: hey yourself. Don't use that ping. It's annoying af?**_

 _ **Awesomeme: aww you expected that someone would actually ping you. noob**_

 _ **Ellie: who r u calling noob? 1v1 me, fucker. I will destroy you.**_

 _ **Awesomeme: bring it on, bitch**_

 _ **HeroicBurgers: pls gil. I ady got dat glorybringer ages ago.**_

 _ **Ellie: ._. why don't we destroy Al instead?**_

 _ **Awesomeme: So, you're letting me in the room again? h8 the sofa srsly**_

 _ **Ellie: No. nevermind. I'm still angery :T**_

 _ **HeroicBurgers: wut? Wut did gil do this time? lmao**_

 _ **Awesomeme: i forgot to buy her goulash**_

 _ **HeroicBurgers: lol. Grave siiiiiin gg**_

Despite Ellie and Gilbert's constant bickering online and probably in real life, the two of them got married last year and Elizabeta was pregnant with their first child. Gilbert says they got married at a young age because, well, YOLO - which can't even be more relevant at this day, but sometimes it's still a curious notion why they had to chat on the app when they are literally a few meters away from each other.

 _ **Ellie: right. he would be sleeping on the sofa tonight. :T**_

 _ **Awesomeme: pls birdie. I need to be by your side in case the baby decides to come out. It's in this week, right? YO AL I BETTER SEE YOU WHEN SHE DELIVERS THE BABY. YOU MISSED OUR WEDDING FOR FUCKS SAKE**_

Yeah, he indeed missed their wedding ceremony. Elizabeta and Gilbert are at least 5 hours away, and it's really manageable, especially if it's something as important as his friends' ceremony, but of all the days wherein his stomach decided to malfunction, it had to be on his friends' wedding day. As lame as diarrhea might sound as an excuse, it was true. His stomach was grumbling like fuck and had to make trips on the bathroom every 10 minutes. It has been a long year.

He wanted to tell them that Death Cast called him today and knowing Kiku, he would not tell them unless he had Alfred's consent. He wanted to say that he wouldn't be able to see his friends' kid, and nor wouldn't be able to be a godfather to the kid. He remembered talking about the godfather thing to them once. Him and Kiku would be the chosen godfathers if ever, even if he doesn't have an idea on how to be one. He guessed that Kiku would have to handle this one on his own.

 _ **HeroicBurgers: lol I'll think about it….**_

 _ **Awesomeme: wow you sounded like**_ _ **NEETR**_

Indeed, he did. He then closed the chat window and shut down his computer. If ever anyone manages to contact him, he would just say that he lost connection because of a brownout. He sighed tiredly as he spun the computer chair to face the opposite side of the wall.

There was a pin board with a lot of random polaroid pictures of anything he basically anything found aesthetic – whether it be clovers on the park, the burger-shaped cloud, or dew on the blades of grass. Other times, he would just literally take random pictures of whatever it was front of him and made it a habit of not deleting anything until he uploaded them on his Instagram, or anywhere, really, as long as he wouldn't lose it.

His favorite pictures were on the one on the top of his cabinet though. One of them is when he first met Kiku on an anime convention. It was a selfie they took together with a Darth Vader cosplayer, he was wearing his million dollar smile that won a lot of girls back in middle school. Really, half of his followers on Instagram were girls who wanted to get in on his pants. Others were not girls, but they still wanted to get in to his pants. Not that it matters much now, though. Kiku's smile was small and chaste, but regardless, that was one of the times that he felt genuinely happy. Alfred had hoped that Kiku felt the same too.

He then thought of Gilbert and Ellie. He felt that it was wrong to leave them all out in the dark. After all, he considered them as his friends too. Maybe even more than the people here around his school. He really wanted to teach their son how to take a proper photo since Gilbert was so bad at it. There was this one time he sent something – a picture of his brother supposedly. "HEY LOOK AT HOW WASTED MY BROTHER IS, KISSING A RANDOM ITALIAN GUY!"

Then again, the picture is so blurred that he could hardly make out anything. Probably Gilbert was just as drunk as his brother is. He really wanted to teach a lot of good stuff to the future godchild he was supposed to have.

His gaze then went to the picture frame right next to it. It was an older picture of him and his dad. He was no older than three and he was riding his father's broad shoulders. He was wearing a red cape and his dad's rather big fedora. A rather weird combination, but he really liked his father's hat, and as a matter of fact, it was right next to the frame.

He should really pay a visit to his father this time, he kept pushing it back telling himself that he had a lot of things to do. He also doesn't know what to say to him, and how would he say that his only son wouldn't be here when he wakes up.

Just then his phone's screen lighted up as he received an email suggesting to sign up on the site called Last Friend, and for some reason, he signed up for it in a heartbeat.


End file.
